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ColleenV
ColleenV
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Mentor

(I think focusing on new users took us down a wrong path. This isn’t about onboarding new users. It’s about people volunteering to help people with the process of using the site.)

In the City of Heroes video game a player could flag themselves with either "Helper" or "Help me". This would change their character's nameplate so that other users would know who they could ask for help and who might need help. I don't know how well the "Help me" tag worked out, but the Helpers were a pretty nice group who would wait by the spawn point and offer new users help getting started. I experienced the same thing when we tried Fallout 76. There was a group of players that would hang out where the newbies showed up after the tutorial and give them a few things to help get them started playing. It was a really nice introduction to the game.

This would be a volunteer role (not elected) available after someone has met a certain set of requirements - reputation threshold, positive question/answer reception, no suspensions over some time period, mod team doesn't object, etc. When I volunteered for Musixmatch they had an "academy" that went over the various rules and best practices and gave me a certificate after I passed a short practical test. Being certified opened up a different level of participation, so this might be a way to ensure that the mentors have some basic training.

Volunteering as a mentor will

  • add a special icon to their profile so users know they are open to questions
  • give access to some mechanism to be available for users to ask them questions, like getting notifications whenever someone posts in a special chat room
  • some sort of filter for newer user posts so they can focus on them
  • some way for the people they've helped to give them an anonymous "thank you" thumbs up (maybe it counts for a badge?)

Mentors should be able to turn on/off the mentoring mode after they've passed the initial vetting, so that if they are getting burned out or they have other obligations they can take a step back. They maybe have to do it in some reasonably large chunks of time, so they can't flip it on or off every other day?

I also think mentors should be able to engage with each other as a group (much like elected moderators can) to get and share advice on mentoring. I don't know if there needs to be some sort of limit on how many people can be mentors, but there may need toshould be some sort of participation commitment. I don’t think it needs to be an exclusive role — anyone who is willing to make the time commitment and meets the other requirements should be able to identify as a mentor. I don’t see any reason why a site moderator couldn’t have both a diamond and a mentor flag.

A newly registered user could be asked if they wanted to "say hello" to the mentors as an introduction to the feature.

Mentor

(I think focusing on new users took us down a wrong path. This isn’t about onboarding new users. It’s about people volunteering to help people with the process of using the site.)

In the City of Heroes video game a player could flag themselves with either "Helper" or "Help me". This would change their character's nameplate so that other users would know who they could ask for help and who might need help. I don't know how well the "Help me" tag worked out, but the Helpers were a pretty nice group who would wait by the spawn point and offer new users help getting started. I experienced the same thing when we tried Fallout 76. There was a group of players that would hang out where the newbies showed up after the tutorial and give them a few things to help get them started playing. It was a really nice introduction to the game.

This would be a volunteer role (not elected) available after someone has met a certain set of requirements - reputation threshold, positive question/answer reception, no suspensions over some time period, mod team doesn't object, etc. When I volunteered for Musixmatch they had an "academy" that went over the various rules and best practices and gave me a certificate after I passed a short practical test. Being certified opened up a different level of participation, so this might be a way to ensure that the mentors have some basic training.

Volunteering as a mentor will

  • add a special icon to their profile so users know they are open to questions
  • give access to some mechanism to be available for users to ask them questions, like getting notifications whenever someone posts in a special chat room
  • some sort of filter for newer user posts so they can focus on them
  • some way for the people they've helped to give them an anonymous "thank you" thumbs up (maybe it counts for a badge?)

Mentors should be able to turn on/off the mentoring mode after they've passed the initial vetting, so that if they are getting burned out or they have other obligations they can take a step back. They maybe have to do it in some reasonably large chunks of time, so they can't flip it on or off every other day?

I also think mentors should be able to engage with each other as a group (much like elected moderators can) to get and share advice on mentoring. I don't know if there needs to be some sort of limit on how many people can be mentors, but there may need to be some sort of participation commitment.

A newly registered user could be asked if they wanted to "say hello" to the mentors as an introduction to the feature.

Mentor

(I think focusing on new users took us down a wrong path. This isn’t about onboarding new users. It’s about people volunteering to help people with the process of using the site.)

In the City of Heroes video game a player could flag themselves with either "Helper" or "Help me". This would change their character's nameplate so that other users would know who they could ask for help and who might need help. I don't know how well the "Help me" tag worked out, but the Helpers were a pretty nice group who would wait by the spawn point and offer new users help getting started. I experienced the same thing when we tried Fallout 76. There was a group of players that would hang out where the newbies showed up after the tutorial and give them a few things to help get them started playing. It was a really nice introduction to the game.

This would be a volunteer role (not elected) available after someone has met a certain set of requirements - reputation threshold, positive question/answer reception, no suspensions over some time period, mod team doesn't object, etc. When I volunteered for Musixmatch they had an "academy" that went over the various rules and best practices and gave me a certificate after I passed a short practical test. Being certified opened up a different level of participation, so this might be a way to ensure that the mentors have some basic training.

Volunteering as a mentor will

  • add a special icon to their profile so users know they are open to questions
  • give access to some mechanism to be available for users to ask them questions, like getting notifications whenever someone posts in a special chat room
  • some sort of filter for newer user posts so they can focus on them
  • some way for the people they've helped to give them an anonymous "thank you" thumbs up (maybe it counts for a badge?)

Mentors should be able to turn on/off the mentoring mode after they've passed the initial vetting, so that if they are getting burned out or they have other obligations they can take a step back. They maybe have to do it in some reasonably large chunks of time, so they can't flip it on or off every other day?

I also think mentors should be able to engage with each other as a group (much like elected moderators can) to get and share advice on mentoring. I don't know if there needs to be some sort of limit on how many people can be mentors, but there should be some sort of participation commitment. I don’t think it needs to be an exclusive role — anyone who is willing to make the time commitment and meets the other requirements should be able to identify as a mentor. I don’t see any reason why a site moderator couldn’t have both a diamond and a mentor flag.

A newly registered user could be asked if they wanted to "say hello" to the mentors as an introduction to the feature.

removed the “new user” focus
Source Link
ColleenV
ColleenV
  • 26.3k
  • 5
  • 52
  • 114

New User MentorMentor

(Naming stuff is hard..I think focusing on new users took us down a wrong path. I don't know if I like that role name, but whateverThis isn’t about onboarding new users. I don't have a lotIt’s about people volunteering to help people with the process of time right now, so I'll refine this laterusing the site.)

In the City of Heroes video game a player could flag themselves with either "Helper" or "Help me". This would change their character's name platenameplate so that other users would know who they could ask for help and who might need help. I don't know how well the "Help me" tag worked out, but the Helpers were a pretty nice group who would wait by the spawn point and offer new users help getting started. I experienced the same thing when we tried Fallout 76. There was a group of players that would hang out where the newbies showed up after the tutorial and give them a few things to help get them started playing. It was a really nice introduction to the game.

This would be a volunteer role (not elected) available after someone has met a certain set of requirements - reputation threshold, positive question/answer reception, no suspensions in the past 6 monthsover some time period, mod team doesn't object, etc. When I volunteered for Musixmatch they had an "academy" that went over the various rules and best practices and gave me a certificate after I passed a short practical test. Being "certified"certified opened up a different level of participation, so this might be a way to ensure that the mentors have some basic training before letting them loose on the newbies.

Volunteering as a mentor will

  • give themadd a special icon byto their nameprofile so users know they are open to questions
  • give access to some mechanism to be available for newbiesusers to ask them questions, like getting notifications whenever someone posts in a special chat room
  • some sort of filter for newbienewer user posts so they can focus on them
  • some way for the people they've helped to give them an anonymous "thank you" thumbs up (maybe it counts for a badge?)

Mentors should be able to turn on/off the mentoring mode after they've passed the initial vetting, so that if they are getting burned out or they have other obligations they can take a step back. They maybe have to do it in some reasonably large chunks of time, so they can't flip it on or off every other day?

I also think mentors should be able to engage with each other as a group (much like elected moderators can) to get and share advice on mentoring. I don't know if there needs to be some sort of limit on how many people can be mentors, but there may need to be some sort of participation commitment.

A newly registered user could be asked if they wanted to "say hello" to the mentors as an introduction to the feature.

New User Mentor

(Naming stuff is hard... I don't know if I like that role name, but whatever. I don't have a lot of time right now, so I'll refine this later.)

In the City of Heroes video game a player could flag themselves with either "Helper" or "Help me". This would change their character's name plate so that other users would know who they could ask for help and who might need help. I don't know how well the "Help me" tag worked out, but the Helpers were a pretty nice group who would wait by the spawn point and offer new users help getting started. I experienced the same thing when we tried Fallout 76. There was a group of players that would hang out where the newbies showed up after the tutorial and give them a few things to help get them started playing. It was a really nice introduction to the game.

This would be a volunteer role (not elected) available after someone has met a certain set of requirements - reputation threshold, positive question/answer reception, no suspensions in the past 6 months, mod team doesn't object, etc. When I volunteered for Musixmatch they had an "academy" that went over the various rules and best practices and gave me a certificate after I passed a short practical test. Being "certified" opened up a different level of participation, so this might be a way to ensure that the mentors have some basic training before letting them loose on the newbies.

Volunteering as a mentor will

  • give them a special icon by their name so users know they are open to questions
  • some mechanism to be available for newbies to ask them questions, like getting notifications whenever someone posts in a special chat room
  • some sort of filter for newbie posts so they can focus on them
  • some way for the people they've helped to give them an anonymous "thank you" thumbs up (maybe it counts for a badge?)

Mentors should be able to turn on/off the mentoring after they've passed the initial vetting, so that if they are getting burned out or they have other obligations they can take a step back. They maybe have to do it in some reasonably large chunks of time, so they can't flip it on or off every other day?

I also think mentors should be able to engage with each other as a group (much like elected moderators can) to get and share advice on mentoring. I don't know if there needs to be some sort of limit on how many people can be mentors, but there may need to be some sort of participation commitment.

A newly registered user could be asked if they wanted to "say hello" to the mentors as an introduction to the feature.

Mentor

(I think focusing on new users took us down a wrong path. This isn’t about onboarding new users. It’s about people volunteering to help people with the process of using the site.)

In the City of Heroes video game a player could flag themselves with either "Helper" or "Help me". This would change their character's nameplate so that other users would know who they could ask for help and who might need help. I don't know how well the "Help me" tag worked out, but the Helpers were a pretty nice group who would wait by the spawn point and offer new users help getting started. I experienced the same thing when we tried Fallout 76. There was a group of players that would hang out where the newbies showed up after the tutorial and give them a few things to help get them started playing. It was a really nice introduction to the game.

This would be a volunteer role (not elected) available after someone has met a certain set of requirements - reputation threshold, positive question/answer reception, no suspensions over some time period, mod team doesn't object, etc. When I volunteered for Musixmatch they had an "academy" that went over the various rules and best practices and gave me a certificate after I passed a short practical test. Being certified opened up a different level of participation, so this might be a way to ensure that the mentors have some basic training.

Volunteering as a mentor will

  • add a special icon to their profile so users know they are open to questions
  • give access to some mechanism to be available for users to ask them questions, like getting notifications whenever someone posts in a special chat room
  • some sort of filter for newer user posts so they can focus on them
  • some way for the people they've helped to give them an anonymous "thank you" thumbs up (maybe it counts for a badge?)

Mentors should be able to turn on/off the mentoring mode after they've passed the initial vetting, so that if they are getting burned out or they have other obligations they can take a step back. They maybe have to do it in some reasonably large chunks of time, so they can't flip it on or off every other day?

I also think mentors should be able to engage with each other as a group (much like elected moderators can) to get and share advice on mentoring. I don't know if there needs to be some sort of limit on how many people can be mentors, but there may need to be some sort of participation commitment.

A newly registered user could be asked if they wanted to "say hello" to the mentors as an introduction to the feature.

Source Link
ColleenV
ColleenV
  • 26.3k
  • 5
  • 52
  • 114

New User Mentor

(Naming stuff is hard... I don't know if I like that role name, but whatever. I don't have a lot of time right now, so I'll refine this later.)

In the City of Heroes video game a player could flag themselves with either "Helper" or "Help me". This would change their character's name plate so that other users would know who they could ask for help and who might need help. I don't know how well the "Help me" tag worked out, but the Helpers were a pretty nice group who would wait by the spawn point and offer new users help getting started. I experienced the same thing when we tried Fallout 76. There was a group of players that would hang out where the newbies showed up after the tutorial and give them a few things to help get them started playing. It was a really nice introduction to the game.

This would be a volunteer role (not elected) available after someone has met a certain set of requirements - reputation threshold, positive question/answer reception, no suspensions in the past 6 months, mod team doesn't object, etc. When I volunteered for Musixmatch they had an "academy" that went over the various rules and best practices and gave me a certificate after I passed a short practical test. Being "certified" opened up a different level of participation, so this might be a way to ensure that the mentors have some basic training before letting them loose on the newbies.

Volunteering as a mentor will

  • give them a special icon by their name so users know they are open to questions
  • some mechanism to be available for newbies to ask them questions, like getting notifications whenever someone posts in a special chat room
  • some sort of filter for newbie posts so they can focus on them
  • some way for the people they've helped to give them an anonymous "thank you" thumbs up (maybe it counts for a badge?)

Mentors should be able to turn on/off the mentoring after they've passed the initial vetting, so that if they are getting burned out or they have other obligations they can take a step back. They maybe have to do it in some reasonably large chunks of time, so they can't flip it on or off every other day?

I also think mentors should be able to engage with each other as a group (much like elected moderators can) to get and share advice on mentoring. I don't know if there needs to be some sort of limit on how many people can be mentors, but there may need to be some sort of participation commitment.

A newly registered user could be asked if they wanted to "say hello" to the mentors as an introduction to the feature.